Why is Street Fighter’s M. Bison called Vega? Exploring the fighting series’ complex naming conventions

When M. Bison was announced as the first of four new playable characters for Street Fighter 6, some people were confused about the antagonist’s name. While the red-uniformed, Psycho power user is known throughout most of the world as “M. Bison,” in Japan he bears the name of another popular Street Fighter villain, Vega. In fact, the characters Vega, M. Bison, and Balrog had their names switched for international audiences years ago. While the reasons for the name changes make sense, they do little to alleviate the confusion surrounding them. 

As the final boss of 1991’s Street Fighter 2, the Shadaloo dictator’s original name is “Vega” – which comes from the brightest star in the Lyra constellation. The name was changed to “M. Bison” for the international version of the game when Capcom’s North American branch deemed “Vega” not threatening enough. Since “Vega” sounds more Spanish, the name was consequently given to Shadaloo’s Spanish ninja bodyguard instead. The dictator “Vega” became “M. Bison” and the dictator’s Spanish bodyguard “Balrog” became “Vega” for Street Fighter 2’s international release. 

The Shadaloo boxer originally known as “M. Bison” would have his name switched to “Balrog” for two reasons: the first being that he couldn’t have the same name as another Street Fighter 2 character and the second was for legal reasons. Since the boxer’s full name, “Mike Bison”, was meant to be a play on the real-world boxer Mike Tyson (the character even looks like an exaggerated caricature of him), Capcom decided to change the name to avoid any legal disputes. Strangely, while the “M.” in “M. Bison” used to stand for “Mike”, the letter doesn’t have any meaning when attached to the Shadaloo dictator. Some surmise that the “M.” stands for “Major”, but Capcom has yet to shed any light on the mystery. 

And that’s why three of Street Fighter’s iconic villains have their names switched. Barring exceptions like these three characters and Akuma (whose original name is “Gouki”), most of the Street Fighter cast have the same names no matter which country you are in.  

Street Fighter 6 is available for PC (Steam), PS4/PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.